Sunday, May 29, 2011

Crazy of Giant Cookies!

These were the most favorite snacks in our home during the month of May; GIANT cookies.Cookies are the children's favorite. My children always remind me to bake cookies for them. I realize that cookies invoke nostalgic memories of childhood filled with love, laughter and treats. I'll try as much as I can to give that good memories for my children.

To be honest, making cookies is not hard, not at all. It just takes time, since we have to start with mixing the ingredients to make the dough, and 'shape' them. The 'shaping' stage that normally takes time. For this reason, I chose the most easy and simple method; 'dropping', and to make it even more simple, I make them big size... double or even triple than normal cookies drop size. It'll not take too long to drop all the dough to the baking sheets. At the end, the warm and sweet of a home baked delight brings an instant sense of calm and contentment. Yeah, everybody is happy! Very happy.

These cookies were my elder sister's favorite. 'I feel good to know that the cookies contain lots of oatmeal. It makes me not feel quilty to eat lots of them', that she said. For me, I can't finish one cookies in one go. It's just too big.

The original recipe suggests to put 2-4 scoops chocolate and vanilla ice cream in between two cookies to make cookie sandwich. It's up to you.

2. In large a mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter and butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat on medium speed until mixture is fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla, beat well. On low speed, beat in the flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the rolled oats and the raisins/chocolate pieces.

4. Bake in the preheated oven about 10 minutes or until the edges are golden. Let the cookies stand for 1 minute. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

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Giant Chocolate Sugar CookiesFor me personally, these cookies are too sweet. I think I need to reduce the amount of sugar. I like the texture; it is crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Just like 'cookie brownies'.

Since I don't have 2 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, so I used my 1 1/2 inch one. For one cookie I dropped one scoop (using 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop) plus one (normal) tablespoon of dough.

Bake this cookies will fill your house with the sweet and heavy aroma as the cookies bake and take shape in the oven. Let's put your kettle on and indulgence yourself.

Directions :1.Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

2.Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in shortening (or additional butter). Add egg and vanilla; mix until creamy. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until just combined.

Giant Chocolate Chips CookiesThis was my very first time trying Nigella Lawson's recipe. I got the recipe from 'Delicious' Magazine (March 2010 edition), where she wrote a good article 'Perfect Beat' and accompaned the article with 3 recipes.

Originally, this recipe title is 'my favorite cookies'. Mmm, so I really wanted to know how her favorite cookie was. I substituted the salted peanut with chopped cashews and the light brown sugar with palm sugar. And the result... less than 24 hours all the cookies were gone. Our children love it. I know that my children will love all type of cookies that have lots of chocolate chips.

They are delicious cookies, perfect sweetness, but nothing special with the taste. I love its chewy texture.

Direction :1. Using an electric mixer or by hand, beat together the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar in a large bowl for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in the vanilla extract, followed by the eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Fold in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, chopped chocolate and peanuts, mixing well. Chill the cookies dough fo 30 minutes until firm.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.

4. Using clean hands, shape the chilled dough into about 20 fat discs, using slighly less than 3 tablespoons of dough for each cookie.

5. Place 5-6 cookies on each baking sheet, leaving plenty of space in between, then press gently to flatten until about 6 cm across and 1 cm thick.

6. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges and crecked and chewy in the centre, switching the position of the baking sheets halfway.

7. Remove the cookies from the oven while they are still soft in the centre or they will lose their chewiness as they cool. Allow the cookies to rest on baking sheets for abou 3 minutes before transferring them to wire rack to cool.

8. Repeat the process with the remaining cookie dough. Once completely cool, you can store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.